KTHIS DIFFICULT QUESTION: "WHO AM I?"Some months ago I was lucky enough to meet Mikhail Shcherbakov, director of the Institute for Personality Development. Physicist by education, ten years ago Mikhail took a great interest in psychology, to be particular - in the systems for personal and spiritual development. His research works, as well as training courses and therapeutic methods developed by him, (*) are targeted at exploration of the structure of consciousness and revealing its resources. Research by Mikhail Shcherbakov has put together the so called physical approach to the problem and traditional spiritual practices and methods of modern psychology. During my talk with Mikhail, we touched upon multiple issues, including connection between the state of personality and the society. Q. Mikhail, recently, there has been much talk about the "spiritual crisis" in Russia and the necessity "to revive spirituality". Do you agree with it? A. The very concept of "crisis" implies that earlier the situation was much better. However, can we state that some twenty or seventy years ago our society was more into spiritual values? Even more absurd seem to be the calls to get back to the spiritual and religious values of the beginning of this century. The Revolution of 1917 and the most savage Civil War demonstrated that it was just in the beginning of the 20th century when Russia actually suffered from deep spiritual crisis. While the social and psychological situation in which we find ourselves now would be more justifiably characterized as the crisis of self-identification. Q. Does it mean that we lost the understanding of who we are? A. Self-identification means identification of a self with some particular social group, image, archetype. We can single out seven levels of self-identification:
Social and professional level is defined by statements of the type: I am an engineer, I am rich, I am an honored citizen. Family and clan level is defined by statements: I am mother, I am uncle, I am friend, etc. National and territorial level: I am Russian, I am of Russian citizenship, I am a Muscovite; I am European. Religious and ideological: I am a member of the Orthodox Church, I am Moslem, I am communist, I am democrat, I am pacifist. This level of identification defines the relation to some religious or ideological group and the system of values connected with it. Evolutionary and specific: I am a human being. This identification may seem to be banal, but if we look somewhat deeper into it we can see some very interesting shades of it. This identification is connected with archetypes and the "evolutionary memory". The declaration itself - "I am a human being" - bears much more implications than just simple denotation of being a part of some biological species. To different people, being a human being, a man, means not very much the same thing. Just remember: "Barankin, be a man!". Widely used in certain strata of society names like "goat" (= jerk [note by translator]) are nothing else but an attempt to violate the evolutionary and specific identification, or to declare that such violation has already taken place, and the bearer of the nickname is not a "100% human being/man". Sexual level of identification: I am a man, I am a woman. This is one of the deepest levels of identification, the study of which can yield exclusively valuable information on the subconscious component of a personality. Spiritual level can hardly be put into words. This is a complex of sensations, world perception, and of the immediately connected hereto system of values which defines our relations with God or the Universe wisdom. It is connected only with the personal spiritual experience. Q. These levels remind me of a puff-pastry. A. And this is true. The levels of self-identification are closely connected with the structure of consciousness, which, in its turn, is stipulated by the brain evolution. Consciousness can be viewed as a multi-layer structure. The upper layer is responsible for behavior, motivation and social adaptation. The in-depth areas - archetype, transpersonal, the layer of universal modalities and universal unity - are inaccessible for comprehension and study under the common conditions. Between the surface and the deep layers of consciousness, there is an energy barrier corresponding to "gaps" between the new and the ancient portions of brain. Correspondingly, the levels of self-identification are subdivided by how deep they are located. The higher the level, the more immediate is its influence on behavior of a person and his/her relations with society, and the more is he/she subject to the influence of his/her environment. The most surface level is the social and professional one. It contains much energy and significantly effects behavior of a person. If this level gets damaged, the whole system of self-identification becomes unstable. Change of social and economical conditions in our country resulted in the situation, when millions of people of the former USSR, who got used to rigidly identify themselves as engineers, workers, citizens of the Great Power, etc. and, proceeding from this, correlate their values, behavior, relations with society, started to experience the crisis of self-identification. Q. What is the usual reaction of the people who got into such a situation? A. The most widely spread are the following four alternatives of reaction, when a person:
Q. You are saying that today the crisis of self-identification is being experienced by millions of people. How does it influence the society? A. The consequences can be noticed with the naked eye. First, the crisis of self-identification creates of itself the ruin of moral values. When the latter are connected not with the inner spiritual experience of a person but rather with his/her corresponding identification, then there comes almost total moral vacuum. However, this vacuum is quickly replaced with a new structure of self-identification, where the accents are shifted towards other levels. For example, let it be that I am no longer a researcher, but, first of all, I am a mother (wife, father). Let it be that I am no longer an assistant professor, but I am Moldavian (Tatar, Ukrainian). Let it be that I am no longer an army officer, but I am an orthodox believer (Moslem, Israelite). The easiest of all is to focus the energy on the levels in the closest proximity to the ruined one. From this point of view, it is quite feasible to explain the increased interest of a part of society to its national status. The things that just some years ago attracted no attention became, all of a sudden, so much important that there unleashed national wars and unchecked "parade of sovereignties". While it is obvious that neither the former nor the latter can bring any economic benefits at all, this practice has become extremely widely spread. Increased interest to religious associations, parade of "church sovereignties" and conflicts proceeding from this can also be explained from this viewpoint. Focusing of energy in the sphere of sexual self-identification results in increased aggressiveness - one of the aspects of sexual energy. As a consequence, growth of violence inside the society, or focusing of aggression on some outer enemy. Any war - with inner or outer enemies, whatever - contributes to enhanced rigidity and stability of self-identification. Q. Well, any war gives simple and easy answers: either my kin or my enemy. A. This is true. And veterans of different wars, in time of peace, often lack this clarity of self-identification. The totalitarian, or close to it, states have traditionally used wars to create artificial statements of self-identification. The leaders of such systems could skilfully re-define self-identification: I am a man, consequently, I am brave, courageous, strong, consequently, I am a soldier without doubts. I am Russian, consequently, I win a victory over the persons of ... nationality and adherents of a different faith. I am a patriot, consequently, I am an enemy to all strangers. This particular way allows not only to attract volunteers to Afghan or Chechen wars, or to use just common conscripts, but also to make them struggle with utmost effort and severity. Upon completion of a big war, the crisis of self-identification involves the whole society, irrespective of the fact whether the country won or lost the war. A veteran of a local war, as a rule, experiences deep personality crisis of self-identification, even more serious because during the war his structure of self-identification has significantly deviated from the basic structure of the rest of the society. Q. Is it possible at all to do without any wars? A. We can focus energy on the spiritual layer, and this way seems to be the most harmonious. But this is a very specific situation. It can reveal itself both as an interest in various esoteric and mystic teachings, and as following the way of spiritual comprehension of life. When there is enough energy on the spiritual level of self-identification, a person does not feel uneasy or anxious, his or her moral values do not depend so much on the current situation in the society. Significantly enough, this resolves the problem of self-identification, because a person has his/her inner self-comprehension and is able to make his/her own choice regarding his/her self-identification. On the whole, the crisis of self-identification leads to stratification of society. Some people lose their regular moral benchmarks and cast prudence to the winds, some replace the former rigid norms with the new, less rigid, national and clan, religious, professional ones, while others become more integral and spiritual. Q. Is it possible to harmoniously combine in one person a businessman and a spiritual man? A. Most often, it is a rather complicated problem. In Europe and in the USA, we can notice this approach already, while the very basics of business have formed particular moral code which is close to the spiritual principles common to all mankind: do not kill, do not cheat, invest money in charity, etc. In our country the situation is far from it, and a person here is either spiritual, or a businessman. It is possible to keep yourself in the middle of the road, but it is very difficult, because the very principles of business imply cheating, bribes, threats of violence, etc. On the other hand, in the recent past, the USA were in a similar situation. In the Wild West, cowboys were shooting the Indians and each other with extreme cruelty. Bank robbery was considered a heroic deed. In the period of "dry law", gangsters controlled the major part of the country's business. But time passed, and bit by bit extremes came to balance. Q. What kind of advice could you give to a person suffering from this crisis of self-identification? A. Of course, it is possible to focus all, or almost all, energy in one or two spheres of self-identification. On the one hand, it simplifies life (workaholics survive easier because their thoughts are occupied with their work only), but on the other hand, it sharply waters down the personality. Although, in principle, re-direction of energy from one level to other levels can well be of constructive character. Thus, when a person suffers from some grave problems in the family, while not being able to solve them, it is reasonable to direct the energy to the sphere of work, religion or sex - it all depends on particular situation and the degree of its deliberation. Generally speaking, the core idea in overcoming the crisis of self-identification consists in comprehension of all its levels and aspects. The first step can be just this clarification of corresponding aspects of self-identification and their actual value to a personality. One of the ways to do this is to proceed from the contrary. For example, take a pen and a piece of paper and go through all the levels while asking yourself: "Who/what am I?", "What am I afraid of?", "What does it mean to me to be...?". It is very important to clarify the significant aspects of self-identification. For example, if answering the question "What am I?" on the social and professional level you write: "I am a researcher", then, while answering the question "What am I afraid of?", you should put down the things which are of utmost significance to you: Not to lose job? Not to lose profession? Not to lose income? Not to lose qualification? Not to lose respect of your colleagues or friends and relatives? The next step - question: "Why is it important?". Sometimes the answer can be worded, sometimes not, especially on deeper levels. It is possible that after this step it will be easier to comprehend in more integrity things like "What does it mean to me to be a researcher, wife (husband), daughter (son), Russian, etc.". While doing it, one should take into account not only his/her logical conclusions but also his/her sensations, feelings, associations. In the process of such investigation, some aspects of self-identification will no longer seem so much significant, while some others, all of a sudden, will be comprehended as really important. More complete comprehension of one's levels of self-identification allows somehow to make the borders between them less clear-cut, and ensure some natural balance of energy between the levels. A person stops following some rigidly established identification stereotypes, and begins to percept his/her structure of self-identification in more integrity. E-mail address of the Institute for Personality Development: ipd@aha.ru Written by Yulia Kachalova (*) Mikhail - the author and the leader of well-known training courses Discovery Inner Discovery, body targeted methodology, co-author of the method for Integral body therapy, etc. |
